Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Why Doctors Are More At Risk For Depression

If you are a doctor you are
at risk of developing depression. This is because the practicing of medicine is
very stressful.Reacting constantly to
stress is wearing on the human psyche and personality, even if it is what is
called “happy stress.”

Happy stress is often
experienced by what is called Type A Personalities.These personalities use stress like a form of
rocket fuel that helps them shoot to the top of the profession. They also
thrive on being the center of attention.

Most doctors are Type A
Personalities. They are proactive, talkative and good multi-taskers.They are also over-achievers that schedule
very little time to take care of their health or personal needs. They can also be
talkative, demanding, impulsive and easily distracted.

Doctors are also trained to
put others first. Everyone else’s needs are the priority as they check off
everything on their To Do List.Invariably their own needs are at the very bottom of the list and
carried over as an undone chore from day to day, week to week and month to
month.

If there is an award to win
or an underdog to fight for this type of personality will go for it.They work hard, they play hard and
unfortunately they also fall hard when their bodies and brains can’t keep up
with their indomitable will and high spirits. The result is often a crash that
results in fatigue, burnout or depression.

Then there is the stress
caused by the constant self-promotion of the self as an honest or legitimate
professional. If you are a doctor, stress is quite simply the nature of the
beast.This is because most people
associate doctors with “trouble.”It is
a wonder that more doctors don’t suffer from low self-esteem considering the
negative image of them that is perpetrated as a symbol of trouble.

Meeting High Expectations

It also does not help that
the public as very high expectations of a doctor in terms of expectations and
performance. Feelings of loneliness and being constantly misunderstood are
common in their profession.

The clients that they deal
with cause the third type of stress that doctors suffer from.Very few happy individuals schedule an
appointment to see a doctor. On a
doctor cannot guarantee a good prognosis after a case is stated. All that a
good doctor can really do is manage the crisis as well as any emotional
reactions or behavioral problems that clients might be displaying.

Yet another source of stress
is the highly competitive nature of the business. Being a doctor means being
combative, competitive, aggressive and adversarial. Being ruthless full time
leads to feelings of shame and low self-esteem in some doctors as the negative
actions, words and thoughts accumulate in the psyche. Eventually all of the
genuine grief we feel as human beings at the persistence of unfairness and
cruelty in the world catches up with us and overwhelms us with depression.

The Mask of Indifference

Yet another strain is the
mask of the professional that must be worn by doctors.It is not easy to consistently exhibit a calm
and confident exterior while inside we are feeling fear, disgust, and even
shock about what is happening in court and in our patient's lives.Doctors are trained to e impervious and
objective. This can cause a person to become neurotic and depressed as feelings
are repressed.

Doctors are
famous for working long hours. Early on in their careers doctors who want to
make it often work at least sixty hours a week and as one hundred hours.
Leading this type of exhausting schedule can also lead to depression.

It is also common for medical professionals to watch their social and family lives degrade simply because
their demanding schedules take precedence.This can lead to feelings of alienation and not feeling supported by
relatives.

There is a good metaphor to
describe how stress causes depression. You need to think of your body as a car
and stress as something that causes the air to leak out of your tires. When you
are not under stress, your fat pumped up tires glide evenly over every little
bump in the road. However the flatter your tires are, thanks to the deflation
of stress factors, the more you will feel every little miserable pebble, bump
and pit in the road. The result is a more irritable individual who is prone to
depression and burn out.

For more information about The Pinewood Institute for
the Advancement of Natural Medicine courses including course outlines, detailed
descriptions of courses and information about upcoming training sessions,
please go www.pinewoodinstitute.com.You can also send us an email using our email
form at http://pinewoodinstitute.com/contact.aspx or call us at 416-656-8100.
If you prefer to fax the number is 416-656-8107.